Following today’s news (Tuesday 17 August) that the UK Government has published its first National Hydrogen Strategy supporting both, green and blue hydrogen.

Barbara Monterrubio, Energy Transition Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view on the targets for the sector:

“After months of delays, the UK National Hydrogen Strategy will be a welcome boost to support the country’s low-carbon hydrogen potential. However, the government’s goal of 5GW of low-carbon hydrogen production for 2030 may not position the country as a leader in the sector”.

“The 5GW goal appears relatively achievable, as GlobalData has already tracked the equivalent of 4.6GW in proposed projects, with further early-stage projects potentially adding more capacity to the pipeline. However, this is far behind the Netherlands and Germany, which already have 15GW and 14GW of respective projects in the pipeline. Additionally, the UK target is dwarfed by the EU’s 2030 target of 40GW of low-carbon hydrogen capacity.

“It would be disappointing for a country with the UK’s high expected growth in offshore wind not to see this translate into a lead in the hydrogen space. The UK is expected to be the top European country in offshore wind capacity over the next decade, with over double the capacity of Germany and almost five times that of the Netherlands. Given that much of the hydrogen capacity build out in Northwest Europe plans to leverage offshore wind energy, a more competitive capacity goal for low-carbon hydrogen could be expected from the UK.”